MY NASA DATA E-note (Number 33) June/July 2009 Greetings MY NASA DATA Alumni and Newslist members! The monthly E-note is sent to anyone who is interested in learning more about or keeping up to date with the MY NASA DATA project. If you know someone who is interested in this information, the sign-up can be found at: http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/HPDOCS/email_registration.html 1) Summer Solstice June 21: A great Opportunity for Exploring Data 2) New Data 3) Suggestions from NCTM 4) Ambassador presentation at STEM Conference 5) Updated “Introduction to MY NASA DATA” movie (1) Summer Solstice June 21: A Great Opportunity for Exploring Data Have you noticed the graphical image located on the left-hand side of the MYNASA DATA home page, http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/, just above the red link to “Citizen Scientists”? The Summer Solstice, June 21, is a good time to explore the link, “Seasonal Changes in Global Net Radiation”, to view images of net solar radiation for the two equinoxes and the two solstices, and some great information about what the images are showing. Your students may be interested in exploring possible relationships between the solstices and atmospheric parameters such as radiation and ozone. To see some lesson examples, take a look at Lesson #9, “Trouble in the Troposphere - A Lesson on Tropospheric Ozone”; Lesson #30, “The Solstices”; and or Lesson #69; The Reason for the Seasons.” The students may also enjoy related projects found on the Science Projects page, http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/science_projects.php. Examples are Project #15, “Science Project: Solar Garden”, or Project #17, “Measuring Sunlight”. The Science Projects are ideas that may be investigated by individual students or by the entire class! If you try any of the lessons and projects, please use the Teacher Feedback for the lessons, or e-mail us about the projects. We appreciate your comments! (2) New data The Snow and Ice data produced by the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) has been extended to include data from January 1994 through June 2007 (data previously ended in 2005). For information about ISCCP, see http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/prod_param.html. One of our workshop teachers from Alaska is using the snow and ice data to design a lesson for her students. Other ISCCP datasets such as Monthly Cloud Coverage parameters, Monthly Cloud Top Temperature, Monthly Surface Clear-sky Temperature, Monthly Surface Pressure, Monthly Total Column Ozone, and Monthly Tropopause parameters have also been extended to June 2007. For a complete list of the ISCCP parameters in the Live Access Server (Advanced Edition), type ISCCP in the search box on the LAS main page (http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/las/servlets/dataset). (3) Suggestions from NCTM On its Teacher Resources Web page, the The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) lists eight “Tips on Using Real Data and Current Events”. If you would like to use authentic data in the classroom, but need some helpful hints on getting started, take a few minutes to check out this page! http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=16263 (4) Ambassador presentation at STEM Conference Denise Thompson, MY NASA DATA Summer Workshop 2007 alumnus and ambassador from Washington, will present MY NASA DATA and S’COOL at the Educational Service District 123 STEM Conference to be held at Colombia Basin College in Pasco, WA. Are you presenting at conferences or workshops this summer? If you plan to present MY NASA DATA (and/or S’COOL) at an upcoming in-service session or professional conference, please let us know. We would be happy to provide (within our resources) flyers, bookmarks, and brochures for your presentation. (5) Updated “Introduction to MY NASA DATA” movie The updated QuickTime movie, “Introduction to MY NASA DATA”, is now available on the Science Focus page, under the More about the Project link, http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/more.html. The 37-minute movie, recorded by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), http://www.strategies.org, provides a fairly in-depth overview of the MY NASA DATA project’s goals and website.